Wire-skinning pliers.



. G. W. GOODRIDGE.

I WIRE SKINNING PLIERS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 29, 1909.

94;l,l92,- Patented Nov. 23, 1909.

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GILBERT W. GOODBIDGE, OF BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT.

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Specification of Letters Patent.

WIBE-SK INNING PLIEPJS.

Patented Nov. 23, 1999.

Application filed July 29, 1909. Serial No. 510,280.

- tion.

My invention relates to improvements in the construction of tools primarily designed for skinning the insulating covering from electrical conducting wires, of the type forming the subject of the patent of F. L. Spring, No. (569,556, dated March 12, 1901.

The main objects of my invention are to improve the construction and 'cheapen the cost of production, to provide a convenient scraping knife, and to provide means for bending wire ends of different sizes.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a perspective view of sufficient of my improved tool to illustrate certain features of construction; Fig. 2 is a side elevation, with the jaws closed; Fig. 3 is a sectional view through one of the jaws and its cutting blade and showing the securing screw detached; Fig. 41: is a sectional view of the same parts assembled; Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the other jaw with its separable parts detached.

As in the case of the Spring device,my improved tool consists essentially of a pair of pliers with handles 10, 10 hinged together in any usual or convenient way at 9, and carrying two plier jaws 11 and 12, and these jaws have cutting blades to cut the insulating covering of the wire transversely to the wire axis in combination with a slitting blade for simultaneously slitting the insulating covering longitudinally of the wire axis, so that the thus cut and slit portion of the covering may be readily removed or skinned off, and the bare wire exposed.

In my improved tool, the cutters for cutting the insulation transversely consist each of a U-shaped strip 14L (15) of steel to embrace the j aw, the cut-ting edges of each strip being recessed to receive the wire so that when the jaws are closed, as shown in Fig. 2, there will still be left an opening for the wire, which will thus not itself be cut. The two pairs of cutters are arranged to shear past each other like the blades of scissors. I secure each U-shaped strip to its jaw by a transverse screw bolt 16 (17) with a notched head at one end and a screw thread at the other. Each cutter piece lt (15) is made with its sides slightly wider apart than the width of the jaw, which it has to embrace, (Fig. 3), and the hole in that side of the cutter which receives the threaded end of the transverse bolt 16 (17) is threaded, so that when this securing bolt is tightened up the elastic sides of the U-shaped steel strip let (15) will be drawn up tightly against the sides of the jaw 11 (12), and thereby act as a lock nut to prevent the securing bolt 16 (17) from working loose.

The hub 13 of the slitting cutter 13, Fig. 5, is formed hollow, as by making the cutter of a strip of steel with its rear end rolled up into a tube, and the cutter thus constructed is fitted into a correspondingly formed transverse slot 18, (Fig. 5) in the inner face of the jaw 12, and is held in place by the sides of the cutter 15, the transverse securing bolt 17 passing through the hollow hub 13 of the slitting cutter.

One of the jaws, in this case the aw 11, is recessed out on its outer face at 19, and into a vertical slot in this jaw is fitted a scraping knife 20, held by a transverse screw 21. The cutting edge of this knife is below the level of the outer surface of the jaw 11 (Fig. 2) so that the user will not be liable to cut himself with it, or cut his clothing in putting it into, or taking it out of, his pocket. Yet at the same time, the knife is very conveniently placed for the purpose for which it is intended,namely to scrape the surface of the wire from which the insulation has been removed. In the end of the other jaw 12 of the pliers, I provide a transverse slot 22, of two widths, the wider part of the slot being at its open end and its narrower )art at the back to conveniently receive di erent sizes of bared wire ends to bend them into loops suitable to be slipped under binding screw heads.

I claim as my invention 1. A pair of wire-skinning pliers, provided with shearing cutters for cutting the insulating covering of wires transversely and a slitting cutter to slit the said covering longitudinally, said slitting cutter having a tubular hub, and the plier aw being transversely slotted to receive it, in combination with a bolt passing through said hollow hub and securing one of the shearing cutters, substantially as described.

2. A pair of wire-skinning pliers, provided with shearing cutters, each consisting of a strip of spring metal to embrace a jaw of the pliers and with the sides of the cutter normally spaced apart more than the width of the jaw, in combination with a transverse securing bolt to draw said sides of the cutter up to the sides of the jaw, as and for the purpose described.

3. A pair of wire skinning pliers, having on a part of its outer face a recess and a scraping cutter set therein with its cutting edge outward but below the surface of the tool, as and for the purpose described.

4. A pair of wire skinning pliers, having in the end of one of its jaws an open wirebeing at the open end of the slot and the narrower at the back thereof, whereby the bared ends of different sizes of wires may be received and bent into loops, as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

GILBERT w. GOODRIDGE.

\Vitnesses A. H. JONES, H. GoLDsBoRoUen. 

